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Saturday, August 16, 2008

Last night, on Bill Moyers Journal, there was an interview with author Andrew Bacevich. Haven't heard of him? Neither had I, but I'm glad I heard what he had to say. The only problem: the mainstream media will never promote his book, or have him interview on the air. Perhaps we could share this information with our friends?

Thursday, August 14, 2008

It's hard for me to believe, but it's been 8 years since Decker died. I spent my day today between working and taking Mom shopping, but there were still a few moments of tears. I do wish Decker was back, I can honestly say those days were the best of my life.

Fast forward to today, August 30, 2008:

This is what I wrote on August 14, 2008. It was the anniversary of Decker's death, and it's usually a rough time for me.

In the course of preparing for Decker's funeral, I had wanted to get a bunch of small packages of Kleenex. It's a Bushman family joke, to provide these to the family at funerals, ever since the funeral for Decker's father. My best friend, Nan, drove me during a rain storm to the local store to get some, but we were getting soaked out in the rain just walking into the store. It was out in that parking lot that Nan taught me not to fear the storm (she told me Decker was getting in some practice on how to make a storm happen from Heaven), but rather to dance in it. She was trying to teach me how to live again, despite the pain I was going through, pain that still hits even today 8 years later when the anniversary rolls around.

A good friend and coworker, Jane, told me about a video, this past Thursday, to look up on youtube that night. It happened to be the night of a really big storm here. I did and found the sponsor's web site to download a good quality of this video. This video reminded me of that experience, and found myself wanting to go and dance in the rain, however given the intensity of the storm, I'm glad I stayed inside this time. :o)

There was all kinds of news this week, did you hear? I'm not referring to Paris Hilton's energy plan.

First, our government has done some fact checking and found that Iraq, at year's end, will have a budget surplus of $79 billion. Our Congress has just given $48 billion to the military for rebuilding Iraq and Iraq has contributed $4 billion of their own money towards rebuilding the country. If this angers you, think about this: it would cost $50 billion to pay full tuition for any American wanting to go to a public college or university. Where are our priorities here?

Now, I do believe we have a responsibility to assist Iraq in rebuilding, after all we did invade their country. I also feel, though, that Iraq should be doing more than they are. From what I've heard and read in the media, part of the problem is this surplus money is located here in the U.S. and the Iraq officials cannot get their hands on it.

This was brought up, along with a fantastic story on the Bill Moyers Journal last night on the new booming industries making money by targeting the poor. Here is the link, I suggest you watch it before making any kind of a large purchase: http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/08082008/profile.html

Along with these predatory practices, one that has caused a lot of problems has been the sub-prime mortgages. These are mortgages for people who normally would not qualify for mortgages and because there have been record numbers of these defaulting, people are losing their homes while the financial executives who allowed, and in some cases caused, this mess have gone unpunished.

Here is a video from a singer/songwriter who has obviously been affected by all of this, and uses audio of what Ralph Nader would like to do as President of the U.S.:

The good news for the citizens is that there is hope on the horizon. I'm not referring to Congress bailing out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, nor the mortgage relief bills being passed through Congress. I'm talking about a non-profit organization that is helping those hurt by this by finding legitimate ways of qualifying for homes they can afford, as well as helping those who would still like a piece of the American dream. This was profiled a little while ago on NOW on PBS:

Saturday, August 2, 2008

The funny part is, I don't like coffee. I don't like the smell of coffee nor the taste. Yes, I've tasted coffee. Please keep in mind I was 14 when I started attending the LDS Church, 18 when I was baptized. My mother tried me on coffee when I was a kid and it tasted like mud to me. I've never liked it since.

As it seems that coffee is the flavor for control freaks, though, I guess that's what I am. ;o)

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